What is Beijing thinking? Why Washington is struggling to understand its rival

Language is important in US-China diplomacy, but funding cuts and dwindling student exchanges have left a ‘major gap’ in capabilities

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Published: 6:00am, 23 Jul 2026Updated: 7:13am, 23 Jul 2026

After Donald Trump’s high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping in May, the idea of US-China “strategic stability” appeared in readouts from both sides.

While the White House framed this vision as a “constructive relationship of strategic stability on the basis of fairness and reciprocity”, Beijing said only that it was a “constructive bilateral relationship of strategic stability”.

China watchers zoomed in on the phrase – especially the Chinese version – debating what it could reveal or conceal about Beijing’s long-term ambitions.

The episode highlights the importance of language in US-China diplomacy. And according to analysts, while Beijing has become better equipped linguistically to parse American strategy, the US is struggling to do the same.

They put that down to funding cuts to language programmes in America as well as dwindling student exchanges and less interest in learning Chinese.

The result is a disjointed network of government programmes, think tanks and independent researchers seeking to translate and interpret China’s latest moves.

Analysts say that fragmentation could make it harder for Washington to understand its most critical bilateral relationship.

What is Beijing thinking? Why Washington is struggling to understand its rival

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Language is important in US-China diplomacy, but funding cuts and dwindling student exchanges have left a ‘major gap’ in capabilities

Language is important in US-China diplomacy, but funding cuts and dwindling student exchanges have left a ‘major gap’ in capabilities